Arriving in Tamworth in the early '90s to finish her training as a GP, Dr Miriam Grotowski found she needed to up-skill to deal with the mental health issues she was identifying in her patients.

More than two decades later she continues to be focused on ensuring her patients are receiving mental health support.

As a part of the ABC's MentalAs, on the Morning Show this week we have heard the lived experience of people around mental health; Dr Grotowski shared the view from the other side of the surgery.

She says the journey has proven challenging and rewarding.

"One thing I was very conscience of all along was saying to people, I am happy to do this journey with you,

"So we will find out together, we will work it out together, I might even need to up-skill myself,

"I have patients that come in with rare and wonderful diseases and they often know, they become more expert at that disease than I do and they often teach me about it and that is absolutely fine and with the mental health there were some things I certainly up-skilled myself and there are still some things that my patients teach me." she says.

From adolescent mental health to eating disorders Dr Grotowski has developed a reputation as one of the go-to people for mental health care in the region.

Along the way she says she has learnt the importance of developing a support network with her colleagues,

"As a practice we have two meetings a month around mental health for clinicians,

"One of the things I feel if you are working in an area like that it can actually be draining yourself, so I wanted to work in the area for a long time, not a short time so we started a mental health support group which is open to all doctors in the area and that is supported by local psychiatrists" she explains.

Dr Grotowski says her practice made the decision to employ a full time Credentialed Mental Health Nurse.

The toughest part of her job is supporting teenagers who are going through serious problems,

"I guess what I find frustrating is that, that is an age where life is meant to be much more enjoyable than being distressed and being weighed down by really scary thoughts and that's when you want to be able to help and move them forward, and if I am not able to succeed with that I find that difficult,

"Adolescent health is a really rewarding area to work in particularly when you are equipping people for rest of their lives, but if they are getting more and more distressed that can be very difficult to watch." she says.

She says she hopes the community accepts mental illness as valid an illness as any other illness.